Oil Theft allegation: Navy clashes with Dokubo

By Sola Omoniyi, Lagos

The Nigerian Navy has dared former agitator and Niger Delta leader, Mujahid Asari Dokubo, to provide the names of officers involved in crude oil theft.

Recall, Dokubo had earlier made claims, stating that the majority of oil theft cases in the oil-rich region can be traced to the Nigerian Army and Navy.

During a briefing with State House reporters after a closed-door meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Aso Rock Villa, Dokubo said, “The military is at the centre of oil theft, and we have to make this very clear to the Nigerian public that 99 percent of oil theft can be traced to the Nigerian military, the Army and the Navy especially.”

Responding swiftly to these allegations, Commodore Adedotun Ayo-Vaughan, the spokesman for the Nigerian Navy, dismissed the claims as “spurious and unguarded.”

Ayo-Vaughan pointed out that oil thieves were expressing frustration because the Nigerian Navy, alongside the entire military, had been relentlessly preventing their attempts to sabotage the economy through the ongoing “Operation DAKATAR DA BARAWO.”

Ayo-Vaughan stressed that the Nigerian Navy, in collaboration with relevant stakeholders, will continue to obstruct crude oil thieves in their attempts to harm Nigeria’s economy.

However, he challenged Dokubo to present the names of those involved, asserting that the Navy maintains a zero-tolerance policy towards any form of criminality, including the alleged theft mentioned by Asari Dokubo.